Am I The Only One? Chapter 10
by jflores4448
Summary: Melanie and the gang finally find Abby, but some misfortunes happen to one of them. New people come along and shine new information into the situation. But why does Shelly and Gaby betray them? Read to find out.


The lucky winner of the day for the cover photo is Dulce.

Also, I'm officially ending the Apps due to too many people in the story.

Chapter 10

Melanie's POV

Grim looks at Dawn and asks, "Are your powers recharged yet?"

She shakes her head. "No sir. I still need more time."

"How long?"

"About an hour left."

Ashley then looks at Trevor, "Can't you hear them breathing or something?"

Trevor raises his eyebrow as he says, "You expect me to hear them over all these animals in the forest? Psh, no."

"Now what?" Danny says.

We all think of a way to quickly find Abby and Britney until quietly, Dulce says, "I can fly someone over there?"

Me and Matt look at her wide eyed as Ashley says, "That…could work. But can you hold on to someone long enough?"

She shrugs, "I don't know, maybe, but I can only take one of you guys."

Ashley then looks at Grim, "It's your call."

Grim looks at Dulce, "You sure wanna do this?"

Dulce nods and walks over to me, "Yeah, it's the least I can do"

I spot something move in the corner of my eye. As I turn to look, I gasp in shock. On Dulce's back, I see what almost looks like two slits running down her spine. Slowly, two thin delicate looking wings arise from her back and unfold. They move swiftly and are almost as tall as Dulce. They glimmer and sparkle in the remaining sunlight. The pattern is what amazes me the most. Its red-purplish tie-dye color spreads through the wings as maroon and orange circles frame the wings. The wings majestically settle until it's covering Dulce and me. Everyone, except Dawn and Grim, look at the wings admirably.

"Wow..they're beautiful." says Ashley.

"Thanks. Now Melanie lets go." says Dulce.

"Wait, what about everybody else? I ask.

"Don't worry. They'll all be fine. They'll be behind us the whole time."

"Okay," I say relieved, "so, how do we do this?" I curiously ask.

"I can carry you in my arms or you can hold on to my ankles." She says nonchalantly.

I make a face to the first option, and say, "I'll go with option #2."

A second later, she's hovering over me as her wings gently beat the air.

"Grab on."

I do as I'm told and I look back at Matt questioning whether I should go or not. Matt senses my uneasiness and says, "Don't worry. We'll be find, I'll be right behind you."

I nod as I start to feel the ground disappear from underneath me. I close my eyes and try to take deep breathes, but it started to become hard since the fact that what we're doing is far from beyond normal. I look down at the Matt to see them running behind us as we fly towards the direction Dulce had last seen them. We're in flight for what seems to be more than 10 minutes until my arms begin to hurt.

"Dulce, my arms are starting to hurt. Are we almost there?" I say as I squirm in midair.

"Yeah, we're super close. Just hold on a little bit longer girl."

I nod and try to think of something else, but I could feel my arms giving in and my hands beginning to become sweaty and slipping from her ankle.

"Just hold on, we're almost there…Just a few more minutes." Dulce says obviously trying to comfort me.

I look down and we're at least 50 feet off the ground, until I start to feel my right hand slip off her ankle. I quickly try to readjust myself and regroup it, but I failed. Dulce notices right away and slows down her flying until we're only hovering. She bends down awkwardly, trying to be careful with her wings and reaches her hand towards me as she says, "Take my hand."

I panic and was about to grab her offering hand, till my hand still holding her ankle slid right off. I scream as I was about to fall down until Dulce quickly grabs my arms. We both breathe in deeply, thinking about what could have just happen right now, until she forces herself to smile, "Are you alright?" she says as her voice trembles.

"Yeah…I think so."

"I'm gonna get you down there so you can get yourself together girl."

We're at least 35 feet in the air by now, but in the corner of my eye, I see something shimmering right below us. I look down and I could make out metal. I guess Dulce was following my gaze and realized what it was before I did because she started to tremble and accidentally lost her grip me. I could feel the air pushing me down as Dulce just realized what has happened. She starts to lean in towards me and was about to grab me, but out of nowhere, a shiny object flies towards her and hits her in her side. Dulce screams in agonizing pain as a bloody wound appeared on her side. She clutches her side as her wings vaporize and she begins to fall. The wind fills my ears while my hair wildly attacks my face. try to go towards Dulce, but the air keeps me in its traps. I helplessly look down as the ground gets closer and closer to us. I squeeze my eyes shut and immediately my body goes cold and numb. I could feel Dulce by my side now and I grab her to keep her close after the impact. I look over the trees to catch the sun about to go behind the mountains. I start to accept my death until all of a sudden, the ground explodes with thick snow. My eyes widen as the hard, cold impact takes my breath away and begins to take away my vision. I look to my left, and see a blur of what I assumed was Dulce, but behind her, I start to see two other blurs drifts off from behind her and grow as it becomes closer. Soon, it's right in front of me and as my vision seems to get clear, a mechanical sound shifts in the air and finally, I can see. In front of me, an un-earthly looking canon/gun thing was pointed at me. I follow the gun and see it transform into an arm, and then, Gaby. Her face looked completely different than the first time I'd seen her. She had bags under her eyes, she was sickly pale, and her veins were popping out of her arms and especially in her face. I look beside her and see Shelly, who had an oddly olive skin tone, large bumps on her arms, and the whites in her eyes are black. Before I could say anything, Gaby switches a dial on her bionic arm and a computerized voice interrupts the silence, _"Switched to tranquillizer mode."_

I start to panic and was about to get up and run for my life, but Shelly had an idea of what I was planning on doing because she started to press her heels in my ribcage. I clench my teeth, trying not to scream, but before I knew it, I feel a sharp pain in my neck. I run my fingers around my neck and feel the tranquillizer. I slowly tilt my head to look at them and they just smile a row of razor white teeth that are aligned in a perfect row. My eye lids begin to seem heavy and soon, I feel myself drifting off. But before I lost complete consciousness, the last thing I remember is feeling like I was being dragged for a while and then, like trash, being dumped on a damp bed of something soft but itchy. But that's where the drug takes over of me and I loose my consciousness.

Abby's POV

I wake up and find myself leaning against a tree. I run my fingers through my hair and spot deep cuts running down my arms. My eyes grow big as I start hyperventilate.

"EWWW!" screams Britney, who was lying on the floor beside me.

"What?!" I nearly scream.

"My nails honey, look." She says as she nearly shoves them in my face.

I try to breathe normally as I observe them. Finally I say, "I don't see anything wrong with them."

"Shut the fuck the up. See! Right there, it's scratched. And I JUST got them done." She says as she dramatically puts her head down. I sigh and stand up. I look around and try to see something familiar, but all I see are trees, trees, trees, shrubs, and more trees. "How'd we get here?" I ask.

"Psh, I don't know." Britney says as she stands up and walks around. I spot the same cuts on her arm and gasp. Britney follows my gaze and immediately, starts to cry. "OH NO! It's going to scar! My life is over! Now no one is going to want to get up in this because of this," she says as she pokes at the cuts.

I raise my eye brows at her, "Do you remember anything."

She sniffles and replies, "Umm, I remember walking back to the van, then I felt a hand go over my mouth and nose, I couldn't breathe…and I must have blacked out because that's all I remember."

I look up at the sky and take a deep breath. I see the sun going over the mountains and the moon getting ready to replace it. I send a silent prayer, just like my older brother did when he was still marked. I don't really know to whom, but to anybody holy that's listening I guess.

"What do you think we should do now Abby?" asks Britney, who's taking a selfie next to a shrub full of berries. "I don't know." I respond.

"Well, we should at least start a fire. It's already getting dark and I'm freezing my ass off."

"Do you know how to start one?"

She thinks for a minute and reaches into her bra to pull out a lighter. We both look around and collect twigs and moss and soon, we have a fire. We sit around it in silence, eating berries and thinking, until Britney kills it by saying, "What do you think about Matt?"

My eyes expand as I curiously ask, "Ugh, why do you wanna know?"

"Just wondering. He is pretty hot though." She says as she plays with her hair and dazes off. I uncomfortably try to smile, but the awkwardness already is holding me back.

"Well, he's really nice and cute."

"Do you think his is big?" Britney says as she completely ignores me.

I start to get uncomfortable, "Is what big?" I ask, even though I have a hint on what she's talking about.

She stops playing with her hair and gives me a dirty look. "His di-"

"OH MY GAWD Britney, I'm so not getting into this conversation with you right now." I say as I stand up.

Britney doesn't say anything for a minute as she also stands up. She thinks for a minute and all of a sudden, she puts on a fake sympathetic face.

"Oh I get it…your jealous."

I look at her surprised. "Me? Jealous of what?"

"The fact that Matt has the hots for me. Isn't it obvi?"

I feel my temper rising, but I try to stay calm by taking slow deep breaths.

"Brit, I'm not jealous. Heck, I bet he doesn't even find me attractive. But I don't care if he likes you or not," I lie through my teeth, "And I know this isn't none of my business, but why do you think he likes you?"

She glares at me, "I don't think. I know, and that boy hasn't stopped looking at these babies ever since he saw me." she says as she pushes her breast together, "Plus, look at them, compared to yours. Mine are like, D's. What are yours? A C cup?"

I look down at my breast and wrap my arms around myself as my cheeks go red of embarrassment.

"Ugh just…stop talking Britney. Seriously, why do you gotta make this conversation so awkward?" I say as I notice the flames from the fire go crazy, dancing in the night. Britney just does the opposite and continues to babble on.

"My hair is dark red, a very sexy color, while yours is brown, a boring common color." My anger starts to rise as the flames begin to glow and rise, but Britney doesn't notice it.

"I'm way more popular than you, talented than you, prettier than you, and way more richer than your."

All of a sudden, the flames blast into the air and tower over us, at least 50 feet in the air. I stay calm and grab Britney by her wrist and was about to slap her, until I hear something sizzle. Britney cries out in pain and jerks away.

"Bitch what did you do? I was only kidding." Britney screams at me. I take a step back confused at what happened. "Sorry, but don't judge me. There are a lot of things you don't know about me or what I've gone through."

Britney just gives me a dirty look as a familiar tone tunes in.

"Chelsea was right, you do have an affinity for fire."

I turn around and see Will and Justin, both standing in front of four people, 3 girls and 1 guy.

My face brightens up as I run to hug both of them. Britney slowly walks toward us and glares at them, "Oh, look who decided to come back after ditching us."

Will smiles nonchalantly as he notices her cuts. He then looks at mine, then turns to one of the girls and says, "Is this what Kylie was talking about?"

The girl, who has dirty blonde hair which neatly framed her light toned faced and white dress, comes to her my side, grabs my arms, and studies the cuts.

"Yeah. The torn rough edges on the skin match the rough edges on the soul blade." she says.

"What are you talking about? What's going on? And you guys have some explaining to do." Britney says to Will.

Will exchanges a look with Justin and finally nods, "Where to start, where to start.." Will mumbles to himself.

"Um, maybe from the beginning?" I say as the girl finishes examining my arm and moves on to Britney. He sits down, followed by everyone else and begins.

"Before anyone of us was marked, Miles, Shelly, Gaby, and I were really close friends. We knew each other from school and we would do everything together," Will pauses before I ask, "Who's Miles"

From there, Justin raises his hand and says, "Justin was my old name before I changed it to Miles."

I nod as Will continued, "We weren't exactly what you would call "good kids". We'd steal, beat up, and manipulate mostly everybody. But after we got marked, Miles and I wanted to change. We'd figure that since this happened, this could be a new start for us."

"But what about Gaby and Shelly? Did they also wanted to change?" I ask.

"They at first also wanted to change but when they're parents found out about them being marked, they disowned them. After that, they weren't the same anymore. We'd stayed at the house of night for a little while until they ran away with one of our professors and stole a sacred knife called the soul blade a few years ago. Recently, Miles and I became Son of Erobus, our first mission was to recruit more fledglings at a very small town called Lakeport. After a tracker tracked a few kids there, he asked us to accompany him.

I look at Britney wide eyed and ask, "Do you think that person who marked us back at school was a tracker?"

Miles answers for her, "Yeah, only trackers can mark people."

"Anyways," Will continues, "Right when we got there, the town was completely engulfed by flames."

"The town is pretty much surrounded by a lake." Mile takes over the conversation, "So when the fire was getting closer to the people, their only options were to go in the water or try to leave town. Only problem was that the town barricaded with steel walls."

"Which only left the water.." Britney said dumb founded. Miles and Will both nod.

"So a lot of people decided to get their boats and try to swim across another city across the lake." says Will.

"Wait, why couldn't the fire department just take out the fire?" I ask.

"Someone drained out all of the town's water supply," says the girl who was observing our cuts, which she had neatly covered with large band aids, "So there was't much they could've done."

Will then continues, "As they were trying to get across, the water all of a sudden turned into this rotten greenish-brown liquid that dissolved literally everything that was touching it."

"We think it may have been acid." says one of the guys who had black short spiky hair and was tan.

All of a sudden, Britney jumps up like as if she barely realized something and says, "Wait, my father told me something about the incident. He said that it was a nuclear accident and that the nuclear waste contaminated the water supply. Everybody who drank it became insane and destroyed everything. But that was only like, 3 or 4 months ago."

"How do you know this?" I ask

"My father's a news reporter. He was there that day after it happened."

I hear one of the girls sniffle. I turn to face her and notice that she was clenching her jaw and fists. Tears roll down her cheeks as she wipes them away and tilts her head as Will grabs my attention again.

"Cover up. But the weird thing is, before Gaby and Shelly ran away, none of them had affinities at all. Chelsea had talked to Nyx and Nyx had informed her that she didn't give them any affinities. So our high priestess thinks that they have sided with evil and that's how they've gotten their tainted affinities. They're borrowing power from something. But we're not sure from what. But then again, it could've been a weird catastrophe which ironically happened when Shelly stepped into the water."

All of a sudden, the girl silently crying gets up and shouts at Will and Miles, "Stop. Just stop talking about this! Why would you ever think that it was a weird catastrophe? You both know that they did this!"

She turns and starts running into the forest. Will, whom I barely notice him also silently crying, turns to the girl who was our nurse and says, "Can you go check on her Natalie?"

Natalie nods and chases after her. Will then turns to us and quickly tries to hide his tears by rubbing his eyes.

"Sorry."

I rest my hand on his. He looks at me and I say, "Don't be. I can't even imagine what you've been through, but for what's its worth, I'm sorry."

His hazel eyes twinkle as he smiles an embarrassed smile. I couldn't help but smile back at him. As I feel my cheeks beginning to turn red, the flames brighten. I open my mouth and was about to say something, Britney ruins the moment by saying, "What's that chick's problem?"

"She was one of the 5 survivors and the only one who survived that was supposed to be marked. She's really fragile when it comes to this topic." Miles says.

My eyes grow wide as I say, "Only 5 survivors?!"

Will nods, "Yeah. Luckily, we rescued a family of 4 plus her."

"And Joy," Miles points towards the direction the crying girl went, "Well, we found her trapped inside a burning house."

Britney and I both gasped in shock.

"Oh my gawd, That's horrible! What about her family?" I ask.

"We don't know. We thought about asking, but we'd rather not. After we saved her, she's been really depressed and antisocial. Actually, this is the first time she's been out of the school since the accident." Natalie speaks sincerely.

"Okay, so you guys saved them, how did you guys get out?" Britney asks.

"We hid for a while. I guess Gaby and Shelly didn't see us and thought everybody was dead because all of a sudden, the steel walls came down." Miles responds.

We all sit there in silence until I started to put all the new information together. By now, Natalie brought back Joy as they both sit beside the fire. I can clearly get a better look at Joy as she stares into the fire. Her thick brown hair and green eyes captures the innocence in her face, Her denim jacket masks her black tank top. Her black skinny jeans and grey converse brings out the color in her outfit, especially her golden diamond necklace which slightly shines like a mini disco ball.

"Wait, I just have to ask, but if you two knew that they were bad, then why were you guys with them when you guys were "escorting us?" Britney says as she air quotes the words.

"A few weeks ago, our high priestess wanted the soul blade returned. Chelsea has talked to Nyx and Nyx has revealed that something terrible will happen if it's not returned. So Chelsea sent us to retrieve it since she knew the 4 of us used to be really close. Unfortunately, they said they won't give it up easily. They suspected that we were up to something so they said that if we stole you guys, they'd give it back." Will says.

My eyes widen as he realized what he had just said.

"I mean, not like steal you guys but-"

"Your such an asshole!" I yell at him as the flames begin to grow higher and brighter.

"Abby, I-"

"Stop talking to me. I honestly thought you were here to bring us to the House of Night. Not to be some bait for your stupid mission!"

Britney, who has been really focused on us, tugs on my sleeve and says,

"Abby just wait a minute."

"What for? To end up being tied under a mouse trap until Gaby and Shelly come and find us?!"

"No," she calmly says as she looks up at the sky.

"Then what?"

She looks at Natalie and jumps, as if she just received a mental brain message from Britney as she says, "Wait, wasn't Dulce and Melanie supposed to be here?"

"Oh shit, your right." Will responds as we all get up and look up into the sky.

"Maybe she decide to walk with there group." Miles comments.

Like on que, Matt bursts out of the bushes, gasping for air, as 2 girls and 3 guys follow his lead. My heart starts to pound immediately as I nearly jump on him while I hug him. He hugs me back as he smiles, then looks around and asks, "Where's Melanie and Dulce?"

"We don't know. We thought they were with you guys walking." Miles answers him.

One of the girls who had platinum hair and blue edges shakes her head.

"No, they were supposed to fly here."

"Fly!?" Britney questions.

"It's a long story." Matt says.

The spiky hair guy that was in my group looks at a blonde small girl from Matt's group and asks, "Can't you use your powers to locate them Dawn?"

Dawn nods and says, "I might, but it might be difficult Derek."

"Can't you at least try?" Matt pleads.

She looks at him and eventually nods, "I'll do my best."

She takes a deep breath and tilts her head down. All of a sudden, her arms begin to jerk wildly as her head twitch and her body trembles. I look at Matt and whisper, "Is she all right? What's going on?"

Before he could answer, her head quickly jerks upward and gasps in air. She coughs and eventually, after she got her breathing under control, looks at us and says, "Gaby and Shelly have captured them."

Chapter 11

Abby's POV

"Wait what?" I ask nervously.

Interrupting the conversation, a phone beeps as Miles takes out his phone and answers it.

"Hello?…..Yeah….They just found us…..Ok, one sec."

He puts the phone in the middle of the group and puts it one speaker. It's a male voice.

"Ashley, can you hear me?"

"Yeah, what's up?" says the platinum haired girl.

"Chelsea and the other fledglings are nearby your location. Just wait where you are until they found you."

"The other fledglings?"

"Yeah, Kylie thought it would be a good idea if all the fledglings with affinities would be present in the mission. She wants them to experience what it would be like in a tough situation, plus, she thinks they could all help in a way."

"Dominic, this is Will," Will joins in, "listen, we got a little problem."

I can tell Dominic, the guy on the phone, hesitated before answering, "What's the problem?"

"Dulce never arrived here with Melanie when we sent them to find Abby and Britney. Dawn went into her sacred ghost phase and her ancestors had told her that they were captured by Gaby and Shelly."

"Find them. All they need is Melanie and Matt's blood. Knowing them, they'll use Dulce as the sacrifice. If they get Melanie's blood, then don't let them get MAtt. He'll be the last portion of their pla-" Dominic ends as the call drops.

We all stand there silently until I broke the silence.

"What do we do now?"

In a rough, cold voice, Will says, "You heard what Dominic said. We find them."

He turns and starts jogging toward south, leaving us behind, until we hear a female scream and see Will on his ass. Wee all run towards him only to find a very pretty brunette haired girl lying in front of him, rubbing her forehead.

"Owchie! Dammit Will" She says as she punches him in the gut and stands up.

"Who are you?" Matts says.

"I'm Chelsea, Chelsea Volts. And I'm guessing you must be Matt?" she says as she brushes off her white hood and grey skinny jeans. Matt smiles a cute smile and nods.

"Great, well, it's nice to meet you guys, and you too Abby. Anyways, Miles, we're all waiting in the school bus. So hurry your slow ass up and let's go."

"School bus? Where are we going?" I ask before Britney interrupts.

"EWWW! A school bus?! Fuck that shit! I ain't getting on any bus unless it's a limousine. Too much shit is going on today that it's hard for me to handle. Just, when you guys get to town, just call my father and tell him to send his helicopter to come and pick me up. Plus, I really need a mani-pedi and a couple of hours to shop, last time I went shopping with Miley Cyrus and Vanessa Hudgens, this really crazy thing happened when-"

"Britney!" I scream at her.

"What?"

"Shut up!"

"Anyways," Chelsea says awkwardly, "Asteria thinks she might know where they are now. FYI, you guys should probably cover your ears like, right now."

She covers her ears and shuts her eyes. I hesitated a little, but I was lucky enough to cover my ears before a loud, winy noise overlaps us. I can tell that it was coming from the heart of the forest. Matt flinches and covers his ears. The sound was still ringing in my ears when the noise fades. I look at Chelsea wide eyed and ask, "What the hell was that?"

"They have started the ritual. They've already have sacrificed someone's blood. We have to move fast."

We all start running towards the bus as I continue to question the situation.

"What do you mean sacrificed blood?"

"They are going to perform a bad ritual. They're going to call one of the most evil demons known to vampyres. They have to sacrifice 10 different blood samples. Each blood sample has to have a trait that they want in their ritual. When they call upon the demon, she will gain knowledge of what they ask before they actually tell her."

"Her? Is the demon a girl?" Matt says.

"Yeah. Her name is Lamashtu. She is known around the world for a lot of things, but mostly, she's the demoness of infection and diseases. But she's really hard to please. That's why she won't take just any sacrifice. It has to be blood from special people. So, I guess you guys are pretty special if you guys got cut by them."

By now, we reach the bus. I nearly jump into the open doors, only to embarrass myself by tripping on the first step. Everyone in it stopped what they were doing and stared. I could hear a few giggles until Derek comes in and everybody gets calm. He looks around the bus with a serious face as he helps me up and says, 'OK guys, listen up. I'm only going to say this once. This here is Abby. She's been gifted by Nyx already and she has only been marked for a few hours. So I don't want you guys to be isolating her like the other one. Do I make myself clear?"

Everyone nods and wave their hello's until someone in the back says, "What about them?"

I turn around and see Matt and Britney popping their heads in uncomfortably. I motion them to come in until Ashley grabs them and shoves them inside saying, "Oh don't be worry. We won't bite."

Derek sees them and says to everybody else, "This is Matt and Britney. They have also been marked as well but they aren't as you would say," he pauses, choosing his words carefully before saying, "unique." He turns to us and motions us to sit down. I walk down the isle until I found an empty sit and sit by the window with Matt following me. I look out the window and watch the trees pass by. They almost remind me of the tall buildings in New York. I remember when I was small, I would always assume that the buildings were like green stocks from that one fairy tale, Jack & the Beanstock. I remember how my parents reacted when I told them that I wanted to sing for a living. The would bring me down, telling me that that wasn't a real job and that I was only fooling myself if I ever thought I would become famous. In a way, I guess they were right. I couldn't catch up with the other kids who would be singing like Adele or Ariana Grande. That's why I worked 2 jobs and until I had enough money saved up, I moved to Hollywood by myself so I can get inspired to find another dream. A dream that I'm capable of doing. I sigh as my past is starting to get the best of me. I look at my reflection in the mirror and stare at the sapphire crescent outline on


End file.
